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CHICAGO—You could have spun it as disrespectful. You could have framed it as bulletin-board material. And maybe the Boston Bruins did both.

In the lead-up to Saturday’s Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews spent some time analyzing his team’s success in a 6-5 overtime victory in Game 4. The revelation for the Blackhawks in that gem of a contest was the reunion of Toews with longtime linemates Patrick Kane and Bryan Bickell, a line swap that often pitted Chicago’s best offensive unit against Boston’s best defenceman, Zdeno Chara. Given that Toews and Kane found the scoresheet, given that Chara looked less superhuman than usual for much of the evening, the Blackhawks came away with the look of a team that had cracked a code that mostly mystifies the rest of pro hockey.

“There’s certain ways you can expose him,” Toews said of Chara.

Added Bickell: “I know he doesn’t like to get hit.”

There was much tut-tutting among the Bruins when word spread of this Chicago blaspheme. Yes, Chara had been on the ice for five of Chicago’s goals in Game 4. Yes, he’d been seen sliding along the ice on his belly on one of them, and helpless on his knees on another. And yes, this was a new development for the six-foot-nine powerhouse, normally a rock of dependability.

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But the Bruins did not take kindly to Chicago’s taking of verbal liberties in their assessments of the Boston captain.

“I mean, they’re allowed their comments,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said after Saturday’s morning skate. “If that’s what they think, then they should try it again. A lot of people have tried to figure out Zdeno, and he’s the type of player he is. People talk about five goals against, but were they all his fault? None of them were his fault, actually. ... He’s one of the best defencemen in the league, so I don’t think there’s too many flaws in his game. But if they want to think that way, they’re entitled to it.”

“Big minutes, big man, positionally strong and aware,” Quenneville said. “I just think that whether you’re going away from him or at him, you’ve got to do some things to play in your favour. But it’s not an easy job, and it’s not an easy challenge.”

Bickell, for his part, used his regular blog entry at NHL.com to relay a story from his days as a member of the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s. His time as a junior saw him work as an intern with the Ottawa Senators, filling water bottles and the like, this when Chara played in Canada’s capital region.

“To see Chara there, to see his work ethic and how physically strong he is, it was just amazing,” Bickell wrote in his blog. “His body fat is like 4 or 5 per cent. He eats healthy and it pays off because he is a beast. I was mesmerized by how big he is. To see him control guys, control fights, it was amazing. He controls guys everywhere. He’s got that strength and he uses it well.”

The fawning continued at some length. Bickell went on to call the prospect of going head-to-head with Chara “intimidating.” He added that many NHLers avoid clashing with the Bruins captain “because 95 per cent of the time he’s going to come out on top.”

“Chara is a big man. He covers a lot of ice. He’s the best defensive defenceman in the league today,” Bickell wrote. “But we need to wear him down and I need to hit him at any chance I get to slow him down and get him out of position. The battle with him for position in front of the net is difficult but I need to stick with it because I know if both of us get to the front of the net that plays to our advantage.”

In other words: The Blackhawks apologize for anything they said that may have given Chara a reason to crush one of them like a small insect in Game 5.

As Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp told reporters: “I just think that (Game 4) was a fluke game. To think we have anything figured out is ridiculous.”

Still, the Blackhawks figured out something about the Bruins that the Maple Leafs know well: Speed can beat them. And whether or not Chara can be worn down, as per Bickell’s blog — well, contrary to popular assumption, he is human. And heading into Saturday’s Game 5, he’d played 119 more minutes in this post-season than the next Bruin, Johnny Boychuk. He’d played nearly a full game — 48 minutes — more than Duncan Keith, the Chicago minutes leader. Maybe they can’t expose him, and maybe they can’t exhaust him, but then again, the Bruins have five other defencemen playing along with him, and Chara wasn’t the only one who’s been guilty of mistakes.

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